Jerry Jones: I’m very much in favor of an NFL team in London

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says the NFL should move beyond just having a few games a year in London, and base a team across the pond.

Asked by Sky Sports if he thinks the NFL will have a London-based franchise, Jones answered, “I think that’s very possible, yes, and I’m very much for it.”

Jones’s Cowboys will play against the Jaguars in a regular-season game in London this season, and Jones says the London fans are showing that they’re ready to support the NFL.

“We’ve got a lot of really great Dallas Cowboys fans in London,” Jones said. “These games will be a good indication of the type of support that we could have there but London is one of the few cities, I think, outside of the United States that would be a great city internationally for the NFL.”

The NFL is so popular in the United States that there isn’t much room left to grow domestically. If Jones and his fellow owners are going to keep growing their billion-dollar businesses, a larger international fan base may be the way to get there. And putting a team in Europe would be a huge step toward making American football a more international game.

How many cities in the US would love to have a team? Seems unfair to the number of Americans that loyally support the NFL and don’t have a hometown team to give it to a country that barely cares about the game.

Hey Jerry, you’re the worst GM in the NFL. The only reason, THE ONLY REASON, you have 3 rings in because of Jimmie Johnson. Con’t to screw up your team, but the leave NFL business to the people that know what their doing.

1. London Jaguars. 2. London Buccaneers( Possibly if the Rams go back to L.A.- The Jaguars could move to St Louis)

1. Los Angeles Rams. 2. Los Angeles Raiders.

selgaeinla says:Feb 15, 2014 3:22 PM

Wait until the players get a load of the non-resident tax rules:
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs taxes the earnings by overseas athletes from appearance fees and prize money at 50 per cent. It also taxes athletes on a proportion of their global endorsement income.

Good luck signing free agents!

jshawaii22 says:Feb 15, 2014 3:22 PM

That would sure knock the Seahawks out of the yearly ‘who travels the most miles’ race.

8 + hours each way to New York, far longer to the mid-west or Denver, 11 hours from SFO…

Since you only have one bye week each season, and if you played 2 games each trip on the road each time you come over the pond, the London team would have 5 days between games, 7 times a year.

Not exactly fair to the players, but we know Jerry doesn’t care, as lone as they get those 80,o00 tixs per game and the TV rights bumped up to line the owners pockets a little more.

js

buckybadger says:Feb 15, 2014 3:23 PM

I don’t get why so many are against the expansion of football to other countries. Just shows that our country still has its isolated tendencies. It will happen regardless. It will make the world a smaller place and maybe even open the eyes of a fan or two.

FinFan68 says:Feb 15, 2014 3:25 PM

There are far too many reasons why it is a bad idea and many have been stated on stories like this. That said, sell Jerry world and move the Cowboys to London. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be in favor of that.

They think it will make money. I think it will fail miserably. The NFL seems determined to make every nickel they can even if it means ruining the game (because they all figure to be dead before that happens)

The NBA is 10 times more popular overseas but you don’t see them doing something that stupid. Players don’t want to live there PERIOD. Having to play 8 road games a year back here, then fly back?? Players will be asleep in the Monday morning meeting. Just plain moronic.

dx2nc says:Feb 15, 2014 3:34 PM

Yes the NFL is a business but come-on. More games, more playoff teams and now teams in more countries. Jones just cares about money instead of also making the NFL the best it can be.

nemobhax says:Feb 15, 2014 3:34 PM

I’m starting to understand. Roger Goodell will do anything to make money for the NFL, even if it ruins the game. Here are a few of his bad ideas:

* A permanent London team
* A London Super Bowl
* 18-game season
* More Thursday Night football
* Another playoff team
* Super Bowl played in a blizzard
* Moving the Pro Bowl ahead of the Super Bowl
* Moving the Pro Bowl outside of Hawaii
* Banning NFL highlights on any site other than NFL.com
* Moving the draft to May

Most, if not all of these make more money for the league… but at what price?

I’m afraid we’re already dedicated fans of franchises. If a franchise were to relocate, we’d remain fans of others. And having 33 teams just wouldn’t work.

jameslongstaffe says:Feb 15, 2014 3:38 PM

It will happen at some point. There is a large fan base to draw on in London. A friend of mine is from England & a huge NFL fan, he tells me that it is growing in popularity & already has a lot of fans. I believe him & the NFL wants it too, the London market is desirable for many reasons. I would not be surprised if there was an international division in the future…

Comments asking Jerry to bring pro football to Dallas first, have been played already so I will refrain.

There are several US markets with NFL teams that are struggling to fill seats and sell out games. Goodell and the owners (like JJ) need to focus on salvaging those US markets before trying to export their brand.

“Football” across the pond is soccer and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Didn’t they already try this with the World League of Football and NFL Europe? Where are those entities now?

Not only that, but think of the logistical nightmare it would be for a team in London. Road trips for them are going to be absolutely brutal, and it would be brutal on the teams that have to travel there. It is a VERY long flight, talk about jet lag, and then the time zone differences.

You played Monday night in Kansas City, and on Sunday you get to travel be away at London!

Logistically I think it makes more sense to put a team in Mexico because of how much closer it is to the USA, I just don’t know if the fan base is there. In Canada you are competing against the CFL.

Where is the emphasis on player safety? Longer travel times, shorter rest periods, trying to make the NFL season longer, adding more teams to the playoffs and thus having more games in the NFL. It isn’t about anything other than making money folks.

It is way past time for American arrogance to receive a smack down from a London team. After a London team wins the Super Bowl, Americans will then learn it is t superior at everything an that the world has passed it by. And, thanks to having real laws and freedoms, the type of hate spewed by players like Incognito will not not be tolerated, it will be grounds for arrest and jail.

We’ll not that I needed any confirmation, but JJ being for it puts an exclamation point on this very bad idea…

billybone says:Feb 15, 2014 4:02 PM

I understand maximizing revenue but places like San Antonio, Portland, LA, Vancouver BC, Vegas, Toronto, etc. seem like cities that have potential to create more revenue before jumping the pond.

I could picture the clubs having a gentlemen’s agreement that whoever is willing to move to London that the rest of the league will support financially in some sort if capacity with the hope the favor is returned once the NFL starts making a bunch of Euro’s. If it doesn’t work, they at least tried

seatownballers says:Feb 15, 2014 4:04 PM

selgaeinla says:Feb 15, 2014 3:22 PM

Wait until the players get a load of the non-resident tax rules:
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs taxes the earnings by overseas athletes from appearance fees and prize money at 50 per cent. It also taxes athletes on a proportion of their global endorsement income.

Good luck signing free agents!

Great point. Plus the cost of living is higher in London, making it less appealing. Would they increase the cap space for one team? Not gonna happen. How many brit fans would travel to support their team? Id say one percent.

Goodell, Jones, Kraft and co are all driven by the earnings potential of expanding the NFL brand re TV and products. Apart from the logistical difficulties, they just don’t get that Europe (and Britain in particular) is a soccer nation and will never embrace the NFL. Never, ever, ever.
Goodell, Jones, Kraft and co should be exposed for what they are, just driven by earnings. A team in London will be a complete unmitigated disaster, but billionaires are not used to listening when people telling them that they are wrong.
The inability to comprehend the cultural differences of the US vs Europe is obvious, but they just don’t get it.

ez4u2sa says:Feb 15, 2014 4:08 PM

I’d be in favor of Jerry Jones moving to London. Seriously, a few exhibition games each year are fine but not a franchise. Also, would someone tell the overpaid commissioner of the NFL that this is an American sport and that there is no way in hell the championship game should be played anywhere but here in the USA!

no one wants to buy fakestock, and no fan wants to except losing in the first round of the nfl playoffs year after year.
………………………………………………………………………
As a Viking fan you have learned that you can`t lose in the first round of the playoffs when your team doesn`t make the playoffs.

nemobhax: Could NOT agree more with your reasoning… Well said.
Possibly at one time Jerry actually cared about the sport of football, then he started to win and it all became complicated. Then came the new “Taj Ma-Jerry” monstrosity dedicated to his empty shallow franchise and raking in as much BANK as inhumanly possible. And as many others have pointed out, are we the only the ones that realize Jerry doesn’t seem the grasp the science of GMT and time zone changes? I LOVE the NFL, but I don’t think that I’ll be tuning into a between the Jacksonville Jags and the London Bridges or whatever at 6:00AM in the states. The desire for money can indeed make you crazy and blind and this old coot is BOTH.

People are not against the idea of a team in another country , we are against it b/c the one being discussed is on a different continent. The travel and time zone differences makes the idea of a team in London absurd.
The english premier league has some popularity here but no one is setting up a New York FC team

azjam says:Feb 15, 2014 5:04 PM

I’m for it. Also Mexico City, in 2005, 103,000 people saw the Cardinal vs 49er game.

Its going to happen, the NFL will go international probably in the next 10 years.

yooperman says:Feb 15, 2014 5:08 PM

Who is giving up a home game Cowboys or Jags? That is lot of cash for the home town to give up.

I think there should be. How can you call yourself “World Champions”, if you don’t take on all challengers from other parts of the “World”?

derekgorgonstar says:Feb 15, 2014 5:54 PM

Cowboys fans are in favor of you giving up your job, Jerrah.

hawkforlife says:Feb 15, 2014 6:01 PM

Hey Mom, Dad, I’ll be living in London for awhile, don’t know how long so see ya someday when I get home. By the way should I buy a house here? What if i get traded or cut. Maybe i should leave my family behind to so they can see you and… Oh hell, maybe it will work if I become a star QB, they never get cut or traded.

Yes, because it is always wonderful and safe to have Super Bowls in Miami and New Orleans, where it is so safe, I Can bring my kids and not be robbed or hassled.

And the areas around these venues are paradise.

commonsensedude says:Feb 15, 2014 6:21 PM

Jerry is hoping that he can get the London team to play in Dallas once a year. Then, the visiting team, weary after a nine hour flight will be in such poor shape that even Jones’ Cowboys can beat them. Combine that one extra win a season and an expanded playoffs and Dallas can again be perennial playoff contenders.

fordmandalay says:Feb 15, 2014 6:27 PM

“Will it screw over the fans and weaken the league while making me tons more money? Then count me in!”

Everybody that is hating Incognito need to seriously, and I mean this sincerely, seriously read that chain of text messages those two exchanged.

It will completely change your mind on what happened. It will change your opinion (slightly) about Incognito (he is still a dirtball in my opinion) and A LOT about Martin (who is just as big of a dirtball as Incognito).

I think there should be. How can you call yourself “World Champions”, if you don’t take on all challengers from other parts of the “World”?”

I do hope that is a joke. It is hard to take on “the world” when they don’t play your sport.

But, just for the fun of it, maybe you might remember when the CFL was here in America in Baltimore. The Stallions went to the Grey Cup match and should have won it in their first season (but there was VERY controversial officiating), and in their second and final season in Baltimore they won the Grey Cup.

Take that for what it is worth.

nyneal says:Feb 15, 2014 6:33 PM

Jerruh Jones is a money hungry grub and that’s why he wants a team in London.
I would hate a team there.
If anything, I’d like to see Europe form their own league and then maybe 10 years from now, match the winner of their league to our Super Bowl Champion to crown a true World Champion.
And if Canada wants in, tell them to change their field and rules to NFL rules, and they can get in, too.
But putting a team in London is not a good idea at all, to me.

It is SO white trash to be an anglophile. Goodell is starting to act like Madonna! The English accent is next! England has no good food, you have to go to Spain or Italy. This “games in England” stuff is weak, a distraction from the American game of Football.

I don’t have a problem with international teams per se, but I agree with all the comments about the logistical problems and that there are better cities both domestic and international to put an NFL team.

One other point, could you really just have one European team? It seems from a competition stand-point that in order for a London team to not be at a collosal disadvantage with the flying and time-zones would be to create at least four Europe teams and have them be their own division. They would still be at a collossal disadvantage but at least they would have a shot.
Of course that’s ridiculous – at least right now so no, no NFL London team, at least not right now.

ratsfoiledagain says:Feb 15, 2014 7:00 PM

diegiantsdie says:
Feb 15, 2014 3:06 PM
Ship the Cowboys there. They’re not America’s team anymore.
******
Then they can change their name to The London Royals.

Another poster brought up a “European” division for logistical reasons. They tried this a couple of times with the WLAF (World League of Football) which later turned into….NFL Europe. They had teams in London England, Barcelona Spain, Frankfurt Germany, had a team in Montreal Canada, and then six American teams in Birmingham Alabama, Sacramento California, Orlando Florida, New York/New Jersey, Ohio (no city designation), and San Antonio Texas. When the league switched to NFL Europe, even Scotland had a team called the Claymores.

It flopped hard. But it was essentially a place for NFL burnouts and undrafted guys, and players that weren’t good enough for the NFL or CFL to play. The NFL tried to help this league out by allowing each NFL team to place a player or two on an NFL Europe team as a developmental guy…sort of like an extended Practice Squad…except they would play.

The talent just wasn’t there and the support by the fans was poor as well. They knew they were getting a vastly inferior product. Maybe with an ACTUAL NFL caliber team it would work?

But I agree, it is going to take more than one team in just London to make this less of a hassle. Maybe it gets its own 4 team division of teams that are REALLY struggling to the point of almost bankruptcy in their current market?

I do hate this absurd American habit of calling all our title holders “world champions.” The only thing that surpasses our arrogance is our stupidity. How about Major League Baseball’s World Series. Really? A world series, except the teams are only from one country.

jokendave says:
Feb 15, 2014 5:53 PM
I think there should be. How can you call yourself “World Champions”, if you don’t take on all challengers from other parts of the “World”?
—————————————————-
I realize that the majority in here are very shallow intellectually. Do you take everything literally?

I do hate this absurd American habit of calling all our title holders “world champions.” The only thing that surpasses our arrogance is our stupidity. How about Major League Baseball’s World Series. Really? A world series, except the teams are only from one country.”

There was a franchise called the Montreal Expos, and as far as I know, Toronto is in Canada.

There is now the World Baseball Classic, but that isn’t a fair representation because most of the best players in American Baseball are not playing in it for fear of risking injury. Meanwhile the other countries are assembling the best squads they can because they don’t have that fear.

Baseball has become rather international though. You have players from China, Korea, Japan, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Australia, etc, all coming to play on the stage where; no offense intended to any nation, the best collection of talent plays.

Who would it be? Rams, Jags, Bucs,? Raiders? Vikings? If one is forced/paid to relocate it will be a struggling one, probably currently under a poor stadium deal and hard up for cash. I suspect 1 of the teams listed above will be in play. Possibly one or two teams not mentioned.

Unless they started fresh with 2 expansion teams to make 34 teams 1 in LA, 1 in London or perhaps they pay 2 current teams to relocate to LA and the other to London. I doubt they expand to 34.

FWIW im not for this, just speculating. The NFL gets what it wants and if they crunched the numbers and determined money is to be made, some owner will get a payoff and relocate.

The only way LA should get a team again is if you believe in the three strikes and you’re out theory. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t they have the LA Rams and the LA Raiders? The Rams moved to St. Louis and for some reason I can’t comprehend the Raiders went to Oakland. How bad must the LA market be for both teams to want out?

This isn’t about being “cost effective,” which I would argue with you probably wouldn’t be the case. You already have California market teams.

The big deal about teams in other countries is expanding the brand. Bringing the sport to brand new revenue streams where they really haven’t broken ground. This is why the NFL is looking at this. They’ve pretty much tapped the US market, now it is time to see if they can build on that. In the long run if it would pan out, the NFL and the teams that move look to have a huge financial gain.

This isn’t about anything else other than money in this situation. This is why it is getting so much interest. People think there is a lot of money to be made.

The NFL had NFL-E for years attempting to build interest (demand) for American football in Europe.

Eventually all the teams remaining in the end were all located in Germany except for Amsterdam.

Then the majority of NFL owners voted to discontinue further investment in Europe because there was insufficient interest outside of Germany.

If locals could not support an NFL-E team in London, why put a real team there when most of the limited demand was in Germany??!!

The shortest flights from Seattle and Minneapolis to Amsterdam are over the North Pole and but still take a long time. Moving the vikings that way would be a good thing, but the NFL sure ought to brush up on marketing first.

From Jerry’s perspective, it isn’t a bad idea. Just like adding extra games to the season, and adding an extra team or two to the playoffs. Why? Because he’s a business man, and these ideas all are potential money makers.

From a logistical point of view it doesn’t make much sense. The traveling, the scheduling, the wear and tear on the players…it would be a tough way to go. But if you think that is a high priority for the NFL, you’d be mistaken. None of the proposed moves I mention above have a thing to do with care for the players on the field. They all have one thing in common. More money.

I understand what the NFL wants out of it. I see their big picture idea. Europe is virgin territory for the NFL. It would be “the only game in town” so to speak. A whole new revenue stream. If the people in charge think the bottom line will work out, it will get done.